ICBC plans UK infrastructure push
(20 October 2016 – China) Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has hired a project finance veteran to lead its push into the UK’s infrastructure sector.
According to the bank’s new hire, Clive Carpenter, the firm commenced plans for a UK infrastructure business about a year ago.
Carpenter’s has had a 30 year career in project finance has held senior roles at Deutsche Bank and CIC. He also led the project finance team at Natixis in London before joining the Nationwide Building Society as a senior lending manager in its project finance unit.
He described ICBC’s new business line as “a natural development for the bank as it seeks to expand its lending activities into an area where many of its existing key clients are already active”.
ICBC’s goal is for the London team to make a name for itself through senior lending to infrastructure projects – a market that has been busy for the bank elsewhere in the world including the US, but not the UK.
Although Carpenter is the only person working on the initiative at present, the plan is to grow the team as the business develops. And while the unit won’t only focus on projects with a Chinese element, Carpenter acknowledged that such transactions will be a key target: “For any large infrastructure assets on the block, there's likely to be a Chinese bidder.”
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